France is losing the soft power battle, charges a group of French diplomats named Groupe Marly in Le Monde, and French diplomacy is nothing but a sand castle — a sand castle that will be swept away by the next tide. A closer view of the details of their rant shows that the diplomats are angry that spending (for, say, essential (sic) UN organizations like UNWRA) is on its way down, coupled with frustration that the French are lagging behind "the Anglo-Saxons".